Bruce Arnold: Don't repeat old mistakes when casting your vote

Bruce Arnold

As I listened to the seven candidates, on Saturday afternoon, copying each other in their supposed devotion to the sectarian national prayer, the Angelus, from which they claim they get 'comfort', I realised what a mess this presidential election has been. They did not all mean what they said.

As I listened to the seven candidates, on Saturday afternoon, copying each other in their supposed devotion to the sectarian national prayer, the Angelus, from which they claim they get 'comfort', I realised what a mess this presidential election has been. They did not all mean what they said.

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Bruce Arnold: Don't repeat old mistakes when casting your vote

Independent.ie

As I listened to the seven candidates, on Saturday afternoon, copying each other in their supposed devotion to the sectarian national prayer, the Angelus, from which they claim they get 'comfort', I realised what a mess this presidential election has been. They did not all mean what they said.

What their collective instinct was guiding them towards was not faith in the Angelus prayer. It was the danger of upsetting the vote of devout Catholics whose Christian beliefs are still part of our political life and, indeed, part of our Constitution. So the seven declarations were not about prayer. They were about votes.

The frantic hunt for these votes, by seven candidates, has been subjected to analysis by a relentless media. To its credit, the media has covered all shades of dishonesty. Lies have been told about political allegiance and political views. There have been unanswered questions about private and business funds, evasion, misrepresentation, and absurd claims of presidential intentions not possible under our law and the Constitution.

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